


Chapter 1

by HyliaGirl42



Series: Eclipse [1]
Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21579601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyliaGirl42/pseuds/HyliaGirl42
Summary: In a world where your magic is deemed dangerous by society, sometimes the only mentor you have is yourself; but as they say, practice makes perfect.
Series: Eclipse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555216
Kudos: 1





	Chapter 1

“Mommy! Look!!” Damien ran to his mother, holding his surprise tightly in his hands.

His mother turned to him from where she was sitting. “What is it, sweetheart?”

Damien held out his hands to his mother so she could see his surprise. It was a flower, or more specifically a chrysanthemum. Its purple petals spread out and caught the light in a way that made its color stand out compared to the other plants in the garden.

Damien’s mother looked at the flower more closely. “That’s a beautiful flower, Damien! Did you pick it from our garden?”

“Nope!” Damien exclaimed, and squashed the flower in his hands. Damien’s mother was startled, unable to stop his spontaneous action. But then Damien opened his hands again, to show gray wisps of smoke where the flower once was. He had used magic to create the flower. “It’s fake, see?”

His mother looked at him with surprise. “You created the flower with your magic?”

“Yeah!”

She smiled. “That’s wonderful! It looked so realistic! What else can you make?”

The two of them spent a good while practicing with Damien’s magic, learning what was easy to make and what was hard to make, and what the limits of his magic were.  
It was one of Damien’s fondest memories of his childhood, that day when he first discovered he could create illusions with his magic.

...If only the rest of the world valued and appreciated his magic as much as his family did.

Magic wasn’t exactly rare in his town. In fact, it was much more rare for a person to be born without magic in this town. The problem wasn’t what he could do with his magic. The problem was the fact that it was dark magic.

His hometown - and whole country, in fact - was filled with all sorts of magical creatures, ranging from dragons to deities to elves to vampires to anthropomorphic animals...and also angels and demons. Had Damien and his family been angels, everyone in the town would be praising his magical abilities to no end. Any angel with impressive magical abilities immediately became a celebrity in their town, with people praising them and practically bowing down to them. But Damien and his family were all demons. Demons were treated as the scum of the earth, trampled underfoot and scoffed at. Any demons with particularly powerful magic would be seen as a threat to the rest of society, and many powerful demons were imprisoned as soon as their magic was first manifested, often when they were only 5 years old. 

The only reason Damien and his family were free to do as they wished was because they were very good at hiding their race from everyone else. From the moment their children were born, Damien’s parents had used their magic to hide their horns and wings and tails, and as soon as each of the children were old enough to learn to hide them with their own magic, his parents taught them. It was more difficult to hide their eye color and pointed teeth, however, so they usually lied and told people they were vampires. Vampires didn’t have as bad of a stigma surrounding them, so people were more accepting of them that way.

The problem with that was that vampires weren’t as skilled with magic as demons were, by far. Most vampires could sense when people were around them because of their blood, and could sense sicknesses, and some could do low level hypnosis of some sort, and some could summon weapons with trace amounts of magic. Other than that, they had enhanced physical abilities, but that was it. As such, Damien had to be very careful who he showed his magic to. Showing his magic would give away that he was a demon immediately, since no other creatures had dark magic other than dark dragons, which never had red eyes.

And so, Damien often practiced his magic in secret.

Damien stopped in his tracks, distracted from his reminiscing when he got to the gates of a graveyard. The graveyard was overgrown and hadn’t been tended to in years. Many of the tombstones were cracked and had vines and weeds wrapped around them, and often one could see rats and other rodents roaming among the graves. Most were unnerved by this place, but Damien did not falter in front of the looming iron gates. He pushed the gate open, ignoring the loud squeaks coming from its rusted hinges, and stepped inside without any hesitation in his steps. He strode to the far side of the graveyard with certainty, having traveled this path numerous times in the past.

On the other side of the graveyard was a stone wall, mostly covered with moss and vines, hidden behind several large, twisted trees and overgrown bushes. Any first time guests to the graveyard wouldn’t even know the wall was there. Damien gently brushed the bushes and tree branches aside to reach the stone wall, and found the small crack in the wall that was just barely large enough for him to fit through. On the other side was a small clearing.

Damien set down his duffle bag next to the crumbling wall and stepped into the center of the clearing, taking a deep breath. He only had a few hours to practice before he had to head home, or he would miss curfew. 

Damien raised his hands and, after taking a few more steadying breaths, reached inwards and released his magic from his hands. He pictured in his mind the illusion he would make: a complete replica of his kitchen back home. He opened his palms toward the crumbling wall and created the first wall of the kitchen, and did the same for the other three walls, keeping in mind where doors and windows were. Soon, the crumbling stone wall and twisted trees framing the clearing were replaced by wood and plaster, as well as a flowered wallpaper. Next he visualized the fridge, the oven, the microwave, the countertops and cabinets...each appearing in their proper place, exactly as he remembered. With a flick of his wrist he added a bowl of fruit to the counter and some photo frames filled with the smiling faces of his family. Perfect.

Now for the hard part: creating a believable human being to use the space. He had tried to create each of his parents, individually, and his older brother, but he had failed at each. His father’s limbs had been disproportionate, despite his best efforts...his mother’s face was asymmetrical and her limbs looked plastic, like a doll’s...his brother had been the most accurate so far, but his limbs were stiff and moved robotically, and he had no voice. He hoped he would be able to create a more accurate human this time, when he tried to create his younger sister. 

Damien took another deep breath, and tried to relax all of his muscles. He pictured his younger sister in his mind - her blonde hair in twin ponytails, the way her face dimpled when she smiled, the way she bounced on the balls of her feet when she was excited - and he focused all of his attention and magic on that image. A humanoid form began to build up with his magic, and Damien dared a peek to ensure that the proportions were correct this time. He smiled when he saw they were, but didn’t allow his excitement to distract him. He focused on the smaller details, such as her hair and clothing, and soon he looked down at his creation, seeing none other than his adorable younger sister smiling up at him. Damien lowered his hands, happy that he had succeeded this time. 

“Hey, Averia,” Damien said to the illusion, smiling. He didn’t know if he was skilled enough with his magic to make her respond yet, but excited from his success, he decided to try. He focused on a simple phrase, and with his magic, urged the illusion to say it.

“Hi, big brother!” the illusion said…

...in Damien’s voice.

Damien cursed under his breath. Maybe he needed to imagine it in her voice? Damien closed his eyes, focusing on the sound of his sister’s voice, how it sounded when she greeted him, saying those exact words...and urged once more for the illusion to repeat the phrase…

...And once again, the words came out in his own voice.

Damien had the illusion repeat the phrase over and over, trying desperately to change the voice in any way at all, from a deep and guttural voice to a high pitched and squeaky voice, but each time the illusion said the phrase in his own voice.

After what must have been the hundreth time the illusion had said it in the wrong voice, Damien gave up, flopping into a chair with a frustrated sigh. His magic still had a long way to go. He was good at inanimate objects now, those were easy. They didn’t move, they didn’t have personalities, didn’t have to interact with anyone...they just had to obediently sit in one spot, smell a certain way, have a certain texture...but what Damien really wanted was to perfect the illusion of humans, even humans he didn’t know well.

Damien wanted to go into therapy. He had a knack for psychology and could easily understand others’ emotions and sense when they were feeling down without them even showing it on their face, and was pretty good at giving advice. But he also wanted to use his magic to help with it. Sometimes, what a person needed most was specific words from specific people, and sometimes it was impossible for that person to ever say those words...for situations like that, and other similar situations, he wanted to be able to use his illusion magic to help. But he would need to master illusions of the people he knew the best first if he ever hoped to make illusions of people he barely knew.

Damien looked at the clock on his cell phone, noting that it was almost fifteen till midnight. He would have to destroy the illusion and head back home to make it before curfew. Working on his sister’s voice would have to wait for another day.

Damien waved his hand, tugging at his magic and pulling it out of shape, turning it into its signature black mist and retreating it back into his arms. What had just moments before been a welcoming, warm house filled with the smell of baked goods and the sounds of the air conditioning, now faded away to become a dark forest clearing with the smell of rotting wood and the sound of the breeze whistling through the trees. 

Damien turned toward the brick wall and picked up his duffle bag, slinging it over his shoulder before slipping through the crack in the wall back out to the graveyard.

As he left the graveyard and headed back down the road to his apartment, Damien thought through the whole process he had just gone through. What could he change for next time? What could he do different? Of his successes, what did he need to tweak to make it just a little bit more believable? These thoughts turned over and over in his mind the whole way home. Next time, he would do a little bit better, and then the next would be even better...the progress would be slow, but he was sure that with time he could succeed in making the perfect illusion, one so realistic that no one would be able to tell the difference between his illusions and reality. And hopefully, with this ability, he could help lots of people. 

This thought put a smile on Damien’s face, one that didn’t disappear the whole way home.


End file.
